Directions for monthly mean time series generation page

Purpose: Creates monthly mean time series in table format from a selection of datasets maintained at
NOAA/PSD.

Gridded Data Sets

The primary data set if the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis. The data set consists of a subset of various variables on pressure levels or at the surface.
The other datasets provided are the Kaplan SST, and the NOAA Interpolated OLR . The options are as follows

Select a latitude range. Enter north to south (e.g.90 to -90). For one grid, use the same value.

Select a longitude range. Values are interpreted as going eastward. Negative values are used to represent west longtiude. Some valid inputs are -180 to -10, 50 to 270, 0 to 360. For one grid, use the same value.

Choose monthly values (you will get all 12 for each year) or a seasonal average (1 value per year returned). You cannot return a subset of months
unless you ask for a seasonal average. Specify the season by setting the first and las months. If any part of a season is missing, the whole season will be missing.

Comments: NCEP data is updated near the beginning of each month for the previous month. It can be late. The OLR is updated irregularily. The Kaplan datasets is currently NOT updated. Plots are rudimentary. I plan to add more options at a later date.

To get data:

US Climate Division Dataset

The data sets consists of temperature, precipitation and the Palmer Drought Index for each of the 344 climate divisions as defined
by NCDC. The options are as follows

Select a state (Alaska and Hawaii are NOT available).

Select a climate division from that state. A list of available divisions and a map are located after the submit button.

Select a year range. Data is available 1895-present. Data for a season that spans Dec is not available for 1895.

Choose a type of output. Mean (individual values), Anomaly (difference from 1950-1995 climatology), Climatology (1950-1995) and
ranked values are available. Ranking is done relative to the years you select in your year range. Anomalies have each months climatology
subtracted the mean value.

Choose monthly values (you will get all 12 for each year) or a seasonal average (1 value per year returned). You cannot return a subset of months
unless you ask for a seasonal average. For precipitation, you get the average. This will be changed to total. Specify the season by setting the first and las months. If any part of a season is missing, the whole season will be missing.

For plot: (optional) Set y range sets the top/bottom values on the x-axis. Choose values with data range.

For plot: (optional) Plot a line plot or plot a box plot.

Comments: The data is updated near the beginning of each month (around the 7th) for the previous month. It can be late. For ranks, I ignore ties.
Order of ties is arbitrary. Note that because of the actual precision of the data, apparent non-ties may not represent real differences
in the years. Plots are rudimentary. I plan to add more options at a later date.

To get data:

We do not provide the datasets. Please go to NCDC's web-site for more information.